A Little Proposition
by mpspenguin
Summary: When Jessie, James and Meowth split up in a forest to evade the police, it looks like one of their usual flawless escapes; That is, until James is confronted with a squad of armed officers, and to make matters worse, he finds himself cornered when a certain Southern fiancé shows up with a little proposition- I'll continue this if people like Please review- it means a lot! :)
1. Chapter 1

James sprinted through the dense woods, twigs and dead leaves crunching under his black boots. He breathed heavily as he ran, daring the occaisional glance over his shoulder to check how far behind the police were.

Sirens screamed in the distance, and James wondered how much reinforcement had been called. Adrenaline and fear pumped through his body, keeping him from slowing down or giving up.

"Stop- right- there!" officer Jenny shouted behind him between breaths as she chased after him. James allowed himself a smirk- as if he was going to give up that easily. He heard her scream, followed by a soft thump, and realised that she had fallen over. James wondered why she didn't ditch the stupid heels and wear something a little more practical, but was thankful that she hadn't.

He kept running until he was satisfied that he'd lost them, and leaned against a pine tree, catching his breath and clutching his knees.

"I hope Jessie and Meowth are ok," he thought to himself, and, as if on cue, the enormous Meowth balloon rose up above the trees and into the blue sky.

"I've gotta get out of this forest so they can see me and pick me up," James told himself, and started to walk forwards again with a sigh.

Within about five minutes, the woods were thinning; a good sign that the forest would soon come to an end. James jumped and hid behind the nearest tree every time a bird squawked or the wind howled, terrified that the police had caught up with him.

"Finally," he mumbled as the ground beneath him turned from soft earth to solid concrete. He began following the road, waving to the Meowth balloon, turned a corner and-

"Crap."

Thirty or so police officers stood in a semi-circle, police cars lined up behind them and blocking the road. Each one had their gun trained on James.

"Hands on your head," an officer barked, moving towards James menacingly. James placed his gloved hands on his lilac-blue hair with a defeated sigh, thinking that the number of guns was overkill for one unarmed Rocket.

Meowth and Jessie watched the scene from above, in the relative comfort of their balloon.

"Jimmy's in trouble," Meowth breathed as James was handcuffed and thrown in the back of a police car below them.

Jessie nodded, worried for her partner. "Well," she said, her usual air of confidence returning. "We'll have to get him out of it, then."

* * *

Ash, Brock and Dawn stepped into the police station, Dawn holding Piplup and Pikachu perching on Ash's shoulder. Dawn stepped up to the receptionist, beaming.

"Excuse me, but has a pink and red bag been handed in?" Dawn asked. "It's got all of my ribbons and pokeballs in it..."

The blonde receptionist smiled, pulling a bag fitting the description out from under the desk.

"Is this the one?" he questioned.

"Yes! Thank goodness- I was nervous there for a second," Dawn said, taking the bag from him and checking that everything was still inside.

"No need to worry, right Dawn?" Ash grinned, making fun of her usual saying and holding up his latest badge for inspection. "Just a few more to go and I'll have the whole set!"

Brock sweatdropped at Ash's optimistic enthusiasm, and walked over to the blonde receptionist.

"Excuse me, but we're staying in the city for the day, and don't really have anything planned. Is there anything you'd recommend?" Brock enquired.

"Well, there's alway's _Joey's- _they do the best pizza- and if you wanted, I could give you a tour of the station. Liz can cover for me- right Liz?" he shouted into the room behind him.

An unenthusiastic girl sighed, stepping out from behind a door and sitting down in a cheap office chair, wheeling over to the desk.

"No problem," she said, in a tone implying that it really _was _a problem.

"A tour would be great!" interjected Dawn, Piplup evidently sharing her enthusiasm. "I've always wanted to know what it's like working in a police station."

The blonde guy smiled again. "Perfect. It's settled, then. My name's Ethan, by the way."

"My name's Ash!"

"And I'm Dawn!

"Piplup- Pip!"

"Pi-Pikachu!"

When Brock said nothing, Dawn prodded him in the back. "Aren't you going to introduce yoursel-" she started, and then saw what he was looking at, or rather, _who_ he was looking at. "Oh boy."

"Of course- how rude of me!" Brock exclaimed, taking a startled Liz's hand in his and gazing into her eyes sappily. "My name is Brock, which is uncomparible to the beauty and elegance of yours! Elizabeth- just saying it makes my heart flutter with joy! And of course, your face easily matches the beauty of your name- your eyes are like pools of water, your cheeks-"

"Alright, Romeo," Dawn muttered, pulling Brock away from the desk by his ear. "That's enough."

Liz watched open-mouthed as Ash, Dawn and a protesting Brock followed Ethan through the door that led to the next section of the station, not quite sure what had just happened. She shook her head, turning her attention back to the gossip magazine she was thumbing through.

"Ugh- boys..."

* * *

"So what's the plan, Jess?" asked Meowth in his Brooklyn accent as they landed the balloon.

Jessie pursed her lips in thought. "Well, first thing's first- we've gotta find out where they've taken him. We were fairly close to Veilstone City when James got caught, so he's probably going to be at the police station there. We'll have to check it out, of course, but a talking, walking Meowth and a person in Team Rocket uniform can't exactly go waltzing into a police station."

"So..?" Meowth asked.

"So," Jessie began, a grin spreading across her face, "we're gonna need some disguises."

* * *

"And through here," Ethan continued as he, Ash, Dawn and Brock made their way down a coridoor with cells on either side, "is where we watch the surveliance footage." He pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket, muttering to himself as he struggled to find the right one, and, eventually, unlocked a door at the end of the coridoor.

About a dozen screens hung on one of the four grey walls, each showing a different part of the station: the car park, the reception, the cells etc.

"We don't use this room much, to be honest, but if anything unusual happens, like a breakout, this is how we find out what happened."

Ash, Dawn and Brock looked suitably impressed as their eyes flickered from one screen to the next.

"Well, that's pretty much the end of the tour. Any questio-"

Ethan was interrupted by the sound of an opening door back out in the coridoor, and three sets of footsteps.

The trio peered out into the coridoor curiously, wondering who it was.

James was walking along the coridoor, officer Jenny and another cop close behind. His hands were bare of gloves, and cuffed behind his back. Brock swooned at the sight of Jenny, but Dawn tugged him back before he could make a move towards her.

"TWERPS!" James yelped as he noticed the three youngsters staring at him.

"TEAM ROCKET!" they shouted back in unison.

James rolled his eyes as the Jenny began to unlock the door to a cell.

"What are you doing here, James?" Brock asked, amazed that he had finally been caught.

"Playing golf," James shot back sarcastically. "What does it look like?"

"You know him?" Jenny asked the three as the cell door slowly swung open.

"That's putting it mildly!" Dawn exclaimed. "He's been making our lives a living hell for god knows how long!"

James frowned. "Well, I think that's a little unfair. My job hasn't exactly been a breeze thanks to you three, either."

"Where's Jessie and Meowth?" Brock asked curiously, narrowing his eyes (if that's even possible for Brock).

James bit his lip. "No idea," he lied, not wanting to give anything away. "I haven't seen them since we split up."

Jenny motioned for James to give her his hands, and unlocked the cuffs with a tiny metal key. He stepped inside the cell, rubbing his aching wrists and stretching his arms.

"I really hate those things," he mumbled as the other officer locked the barred cell door behind him.

"You don't really seem like that much of a dangerous criminal to me," the cop noted as he pocketed the key, examining the purple haired teenager.

"Oh, I can be really evil when I want to be," James reassured him with a mischevious smile, his green eyes twinkling.

"I'm sure," said Jenny, sweatdropping, and she strode back down the coridoor, the clicking of her high heels on the hard plastic floor fading as she shut the door behind her.

"Um... I'm gonna go ahead and head back to reception," Ethan said awkwardly as James and the twerps glared at each other. "Are you guys coming or...?"

"We'll... stay here for a while, if that's alright," decided Brock for the other two, looking at James suspiciously. "We can find our way back."

"Well, ok then, but if he causes any trouble, come and tell Liz or me straight away," said Ethan, walking down the coridoor with the cop reluctantly and disappearing into the next room.

Ash swaggered up to James' cell, amused that a third of the team that had been pestering him for so long had been caught.

"So, they finally got you, huh?" Ash grinned smugly, leaning on the metal bars.

"Oh shut up, twerp," James snapped, kneeling down to get a better look at the lock. He ran his fingers over the chipped metal and sighed, muttering something to himself about "improved security since last time".

Brock looked at the interior of the cell properly- it consisted of plastic flooring, a wooden bench with a blanket and pillow on that doubled as a bed, and not much else. The walls were coated with a thin layer of drab grey paint. Brock concluded that, however desperate things got, he'd never join a profession with the risk of ending up in a cell like this one- not for any amount of money.

"You don't seem all that worried," Dawn noted as James sat down on the bench with his hands behind his head. He chuckled and crossed his legs as if he were comfortably sitting down in a restaurant, rather than in a prison cell.

"Please, twerp," James began, waving his hand dismissively. "Do you really think that this is the first time I've been on the wrong side of a cell door? I mean, officer Jenny isn't _that_ bad at her job. Give her some credit."

In reality, James was terrified- it was true that he'd been arrested plently of times before, but never without Jessie and Meowth. Hoewever, he took some pleasure in watching the twerps' stunned expressions to his relaxed attitude, so he kept up the charade.

"Besides, once Jessie and Meowth call the boss, he'll bail me out." This was a complete lie- the last time Giovanni had spoken to (or rather, shouted at) James, he'd specifically told him to "not come back until you've got me something useful". James seriously doubted that after all that, he'd be willing to pay for James' release, but he was trying to appear confident.

"How did you get here, anyway?" Ash asked, as Pikachu started to play with his hat.

Sighing, James sat up, stretched his legs, and stared at the wall in front of him in thought.

"Well, about an hour ago, Jessie, Meowth and I were travelling along as usual, looking for a Pokemon Centre. When we found one, however, this kid who was waiting recognised us from somewhere, and started panicking. Nurse Joy asked what was wrong, and he told her that we were "the bad guys". Then, she realised where she'd seen our uniform from, and called the police.

"Obviously we'd left by then, but, unfortunately for us, the nearest police station was less than a mile away, and the cops were already on our backs. So, we headed for a forest, figuring they couldn't chase us with cars in there, and split up. Jessie and Meowth escaped in the balloon, but when I got out of the woods, half of Sinnoh's police force were waiting for me. You can probably figure out what happened after that."

Following a brief silence, Ash spoke up. "Pff. About time."

Just as James was getting up to argue with him, a hand tapped Dawn on the shoulder.

"Pardon me," drawled a horribly familiar Southern accent, "but have you seen- _James_!"

"JESSIEBELLE?!" shrieked James, shrinking away from the bars and into the furthest corner of his cell as his fiance spotted him.

Jessiebelle frowned disapprovingly. "Now, that's not the way one addresses a lady, is it?" she asked, spreading out her fan.

"N-no," James whimpered.

"Why don't you try again?" Jessibelle suggested, ignoring the three children staring at her.

"H-hello, Jessieb-belle," James stammered, his voice barely a whimper. "How are you?"

"That's better," Jessiebelle said, snapping her fan shut and ignoring his question. "But your voice should be much clearer, and- my, your posture is just _awful!_"

Ash, Brock and Dawn watched the two, amazed at how much effect Jessiebelle had on James.

James took a deep breath, trying to keep calm and thankful for the bars that stopped Jessiebelle getting any closer. "You remember Jessiebelle?" he asked Ash, Dawn and Brock.

"How could we forget?" muttered Dawn under her breath.

"What was that dear?" Jessiebelle replied, quickly turning to Dawn. She frowned disapprovingly, looking at Dawn's outfit. "It's a pleasure to see you again, I'm sure. Though your outfit is very common. And what is _that?!_"

Jessiebelle was pointing to Piplup, who was glaring defiantly at her.

"Oh- this is Piplup," Dawn said, her eye twitching slightly, only just managing not to lose her temper.

"Piplup- Pip!" Piplup announced proudly.

"Hmm. I always found a Skitty to be a more... _refined_, companion."

Piplup narrowed its eyes, imagining the satisfaction of pecking at her frilly blue dress.

"Still, I suppose it's better than that horrid Growlithe James insists on keepin' around," Jessiebelle said, turning back to her fiance.

"You leave Growlie alone!" James yelled, anger quickly replacing his fear.

Jessiebelle tutted. "My my. Such a temper. A gentleman must learn to control himself, James dear."

James sat down on the bench again, looking defeated. "What do you want, Jessiebelle?"

Jessiebelle smiled, taking a couple of steps towards the cell. "Well, I was just askin' around the city to see if anyone knew where you were, and when I asked at the Pokemon Centre, they said that a young man fittin' your description had been taken to the police station only a few moments ago. And since you're havin' a little trouble with the law..." Jessibelle's smile widened. "I've got a little proposition for you."

Groaning, James buried his head in his hands. He knew whatever this "proposition" was would leave him with little choice and probably end in forced marriage to Jessiebelle.

"Let's hear it, then," James said, feeling hopeless already.

"As you know, both my and your parents have a considerable fortune, as well as power. Enough of both to get you out of here, no questions asked. So, I'll bail you out, on one condition."

"I marry you," James finished weakly.

* * *

**Well, there you go! Chapter 1 complete. It might be pretty crude (I know I'm not the best author in the world), but honest criticism and feedback is really appreciated! This is just a bit of fun, so I'll only continue if y'all like it. Please review- it makes me happy! :) **


	2. Chapter 2

As a disguised Jessie and Meowth made their way towards the police station, they passed a girl who looked remarkabley like Jessie, with a huge grin plastered on her powdered face.

"Was that-?" Jessie hissed once they were out of earshot. Meowth nodded.

"The one and only. Well, you know what they say. Where there's a crazy, manipulative Southern lady, there's a certain terrified young Rocket."

Jessie felt very strange walking _towards_ a police station of her own free will- it just felt unnatural. Even with her disguise on, she was struggling to stop herself from trembling as she stepped up to the young, blonde receptionist.

He looked up at her, raising his eyebrows.

"Can I help?"

"Uh- yes," Jessie said unsurely, racking her brains for the cover story she'd hastily made up. "I am 'ere to visit station," she announced in a fake French accent. "I would very much like a, uh, 'ow you say in English, tour?"

Ethan nodded slowly, sure that he'd seen the girl before. "Of course. Right this way."

* * *

"I don't get it," Dawn said as James paced nervously around his cell. "Why don't you just call your parents and get them to bail you out?"

James laughed, almost crazily, as he turned to her. "You clearly know nothing about me, twerpette! My parents want me to marry Jessiebelle just as much as she does! They'll bail me out, for sure, but then they'll take me home and force me to marry her," he said. "I'd just stay here, if I could- I'd have more freedom than at home- but my parents will probably be the ones who get to decide where I go, since it's still a month 'till my eighteenth birthday."

"Didn't you say your boss would bail you out?" Ash reminded him.

"I lied," James admitted.

"And just through here," droned Ethan as he and Jessie joined the others in the coridoor, "is our surveliance roo-"

"Is good," said Jessie, her eyes lighting up as she spotted James. "Thank you very much for tour!"

"No.. problem?" Ethan replied, as he looked at James carefully, and then left, confused.

"Jessie!" James cried as soon as Ethan had left, running over to the bars. Jessie rolled her eyes, not wanting to let on that she was happy to see him too, and Meowth jumped down from under her coat.

"God it was hot in there!" he moaned, stretching.

"That's Jessie?" the twerps asked.

"Oh yeah," Jessie said, smirking. "I forgot that all it takes is a mildly different outfit and a pair of shades, and you guys have no clue who we are."

"You ok, Jim?" Meowth asked, noticing James' troubled expression.

"Not really..." James started, and filled them both in on what had happened with Jessiebelle.

Jessie sighed when he was finished. "Ugh, you idiot! Why did you have to go and get caught, huh?" she scolded, though she knew full well that it wasn't his fault.

Meowth looked up in thought. "Y'know, I wouldn't have thought James would ever be the one of us to get caught. I mean, you're pretty charismatic, James."

Jessie knew exactly what Meowth meant- she thought back to a few months ago, when a Jenny was about to arrest them, and James had convinced her of their innocence. Within minutes, the two were joking around, and the Jenny had even offered to take them all out to lunch as a way of apologising.

"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly get a chance to use my honeyed words when I was cuffed on the floor of a police car with a officer's boot pressing my head to the ground," James said, wrapping his hands around the cold bars miserably.

A middle aged police officer walked brisky through the door, his boots squeaking against the floor. Knowing this might be his last chance, James cleared his throat as the policeman passed his cell.

"Um, excuse me?"

The officer stopped, frowning slightly. "What?"

"Could I go to the bathroom, please?"

The policeman sighed, and pulled a pair of handcuffs off his belt. James grimaced. "_Dammit_," he thought, reluctantly pushing his wrists through one of the gaps in the bars and letting the cop cuff them together.

James pulled his hands back to his chest, testing the restraints. The man had set them much looser than Jenny had, and his arms were in front of him this time. Having quite small hands, James hoped he could prise them off.

"Hurry up then," snapped the officer impatiently as the cell door swung open. Ash, Brock, Dawn and the other two thirds of Team Rocket watched as James was led down the coridoor, wondering what he was up to.

As James got close to the door, he pretended to trip. The officer glared down at him.

"Sorry," James said, grinning stupidly and waiting for the man to start unlocking the door as he pulled himself up, silently sliding the cuff off of his right wrist.

While the policeman was distracted with the door, James pulled both the gun and the tazer off of the cop's belt, throwing the gun in an empty cell and pointing the tazer at the officer.

"The keys," James ordered, trembling. The officer merely laughed, slowly stepping towards James.

"You don't even know how to use that thin-"

He was cut off as hundreds of volts coursed through his body, and collapsed to the floor. James dropped the tazer, shocked he was capable of that level of violence, and quickly checked the guard's pulse.

"I'm alive, idiot," the policeman moaned. James took the keys from the man's clammy hand, found the right one for the lock, and opened the door, looking terrified. The others looked on in shock- even Pikachu was too stunned to use thunderbolt.

James removed the cuffs from his left wrist, dropped them, and sprinted out of the coridoor. Jessie, Meowth and the twerps followed him swiftly, watching as he bolted into the city with about five policemen on his tail.

"Did James just...?" asked Jessie, forgetting she was meant to be French.

"Yep." Meowth said, shaking his head as two police cars rumbled to life, staining the road red and blue with the lights from the sirens. "Jimmy just lost it."

* * *

About five minutes later, officer Jenny was literally dragging a barely conscious James down the coridoor, muttering angrily to herself. She threw him back in his cell, slammed the door shut and locked it.

Five policemen, as well as Ash, Dawn and Brock, followed her sheepishly.

"If we'd left a few seconds later, he'd be long gone by now," she seethed. "From now on, _no one_ except me lets him out. Do I make myself clear?" she screamed at the cowering officers, who all nodded hastily.

The policeman who had let James out in the first place blushed as Jenny turned to face him.

"Look," he said defensively. "He used brute strength- there was nothing I could do!"

Jenny laughed, pointing to James, who was moaning on the floor of his cell. "He's a _boy_. He's not particularly strong and you're about twenty years older than him- he just tricked you. Besides, _these_," she said, holding up the discarded handcuffs, "were not done up properly."

The man nodded, looking down. "Sorry, ma'am."

James let out a groan, sitting up slowly and turning Jenny's attention to him. "And if you try anything stupid like that again, you'll regret it," she snapped, glaring at him. James managed to nod, and Jenny left with her colleagues, still fuming.

"Well, that went well," James mumbled sarcastically.

"Why the heck did you do that?" Dawn demanded, clearly angry.

"Why the heck are you still here?" James retorted weakly. "And, because, I can't marry Jessiebelle. I can't."

Brock thought about James' question. Why hadn't they left yet?

"Well... I don't know about the others, but I want to help you," Brock finally answered.

"WHAT?!" Dawn and Ash said in unison.

"I know he's a Rocket, but... no one should be forced into a relationship with someone. And besides, James has never seemed _evil..._"

James didn't know whether to be offended by this, or thank the twerp, so he remained silent as he nursed a Growlithe bite on his hand.

"C'mon, Brock," Ash protested. "He's been trying to steal our pokemon for ages! Are you gonna just let that go?"

"In my defense," James interjected, surprised his voice still worked, "you guys have done some pretty nasty things to me, too. Like, when Jessie, Meowth and I were stranded on that mountain, you twerps stole our balloon, and left us for dead! And what about that time when we were on the St Anne, and you abandoned us as the ship flooded with no water pokemon? And to add insult to injury, when you found us floating in the sea, did you check for a pulse? Oh no, you were gonna just kick us into the ocean! We would've died!"

Ash and Brock shifted uncomfortably (Dawn hadn't been around at the time).

"Sure, we try and steal pokemon- that's our job. But isn't leaving someone to die- even your enemy- worse?"

"Um..." Ash said awkwardly. "I guess we _were_ a little reckless..."

"But what bugs me more," James continued, not done ranting, "is that you never remember a single nice thing we've done for you twerps! What about that time when Meowth and I helped you train that electric pokemon, and destroy Jessie's robot? We got blasted off too, you know, and we didn't even get a thank you!"

Dawn, Brock and Ash exchanged glances.

"Well," Dawn said reluctantly, "I suppose when you put it like that..."

"Fine," Ash grumbled, folding his arms. "But after this, we're even."

"Where did Jessie and Meowth go?" Brock asked, glancing around.

"We're over here," Jessie said quietly, stepping from behind a large notice board.

"Why were you guys hiding? They think you're tourists," Brock pointed out.

Jessie and Meowth looked at each other. Meowth shrugged.

"Old habits die hard. You see a cop, you hide. It's like flinching- you don't think about it," he explained. Meowth rubbed his paws together, looking up at Jessie. "So what's phase two of the plan?"

"I'm... working on it," Jessie admitted.

"Shoulda known..." Meowth muttered.

"It's simple," James said, standing up slowly and wincing as his right leg buckled beneath his weight. "I call my parents, and tell them that I agree to the deal. The twerps distract Jessiebelle, and Jessie disguises herself as Jessiebelle, telling officer Jenny she's here to collect me. Then I leave with Jessie and Meowth and get away before the real Jessiebelle comes."

"So there _are_ some brains under that blue hair of yours," Jessie said, impressed.

"Wait wait wait," Dawn said, frowning. "Isn't fraud against the law?"

James sighed. "Look, twerp, we're not asking _you_ to break the law, just distract Jessiebelle. Whether we break the law or not has nothing to do with you- but it's not like we're killing anyone, and I'm pretty sure forcing your son into marriage is illegal, too."

"So why don't you sue your parents?"

Bursting into almost manic laughter, James shook his head. "Oh yeah, like I can afford a lawyer, and besides- a Rocket who technically isn't even an adult yet against Jessiebelle, my parents and their team of super-lawyers? I think the judge would have reached a decision before I even sat down."

"So tell Jenny that!"

"C'mon, she hates my guts. And that pathetic escape attempt didn't exactly help build out friendship."

"Well, you did elbow her in the face..." Brock pointed out.

"She set an entire pack of Growlithe on me!"

"_After_ you fried one of my colleagues!" Jenny said, annoyed. James jumped- he hadn't noticed her approaching. Despite herself, Jenny grinned at James. "You know, you haven't changed, really."

Jessie narrowed her eyes. "Did we- I mean, you, meet this Jenny twice or something?" she asked, only just remembering her French accent.

Cringing, James desperately tried to catch Jenny's eye, drawing a finger across his throat as a signal to stop talking, but she didn't see him.

Jenny shook her head. "No, I mean he hasn't changed since he worked on the police force with me."


End file.
